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Netscape Nightmare

I have been doing this for a while and thought I had a few thing figure out. But, I have a page with a fairly complex table structure that just will not load well in Netscape. It takes almost a whole minute just to render it (T1 line). Once it renders it looks fine. I have checked and rechecked the table
dimensions and they all add up. Everything is fixed width. I am at a loss. Has anybody had this kind of issue. I mean I have had Netscape problems like everyone else, but this is the first time I have seen this.

Unfortunately I can't post a link for this particullar project. But, please give me more detail on what you meant when you said, designing table layout for Netscape. I have always relied on the validity of my code, thinking that valid code (html 4.0) will work in both browsers. For the most part this has worked for me. And, when this didn't work for me I have always been able to play with the code until it did. But this project has really thrown me for a loop.

They are the bane of Netscape. If you are nesting tables more than three levels deep then that is your problem. Netscape starts to choke past 3 levels. I had to do a redesign where the code had tables nested 8 levels deep and it would not load AT ALL in Netscape.

Sounds like it's time to redesign your page. If you need someone to consult with email me. You can ask this guy (http://www.dotdealers.com) about my ability, I think his name's Doug. He runs the site I mentioned above.

They are the bane of Netscape. If you are nesting tables more than three levels deep then that is your problem. Netscape starts to choke past 3 levels. I had to do a redesign where the code had tables nested 8 levels deep and it would not load AT ALL in Netscape.

I don't know about that. Certaintly, Netscape loads slower versus IE with pages with heavily nested tables, but it can handle nested tables in pages. Take a look at my site, a prime example of nested tables, and it loads fine in Netscape.

Read all of my post. Netscape can handle nested tables fine until it starts getting to 4 or more levels deep. Especially when the tables are set to a percentage and not fixed width. That's when it turns over and dies (pretty much)

Netscape 4.x's rendering engine is simply not up to the task. I have worked on some really high-end, high-profile sites and have found that to be true every time.

And by the way bsacks, I took that dotdealers website from 8 levels deep of nested tables to 3 with absolutely no change in appearance or functionality. It's all about the code baby!

I'm not sure about the nested table issue, but Creole's advice held up in my book. I have some pretty stringent layout requirements and had it built with nested tables at least 4 levels deep. All the widths were set to pixels however. Regardless, I spent the weekend finding ways to pull it out of the nested tables and keep it within the requirements. I got a huge performance boost in netscape. Thanks